The 2013 legislative session's biggest winners, losers

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers put to bed another legislative session Friday night and, as usual, some people in Florida came out big winners and others came out losers.

Teachers and state workers got raises in the state budget, the insurance industry held onto a 26-year-old tax break and environmentalists got $70 million for Everglades restoration projects. On the flip side, lawmakers shut down Internet cafes, denied the Miami Dolphins tax dollars and left the working poor without a health care expansion.

Here are some of the biggest winners and losers.

WINNER

Teachers. Gov. Rick Scott wanted $2,500 across-the-board raises for teachers, but the Legislature insisted they be given only to teachers rated either "highly effective" or "effective." Still, that's 97 percent of teachers statewide. The $480 million in the budget will also give raises to other instructional personnel, including guidance counselors, social workers and principals. Overall, public schools got $1 billion more — or $6,778 per student. But that's still below the 2008 high before the Great Recession hit.

LOSER

The Miami Dolphins. The team poured millions into an effort to get lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott to approve a proposal to have taxpayers help pay the cost of a $350 million renovation of Sun Life Stadium. But the bill died on the last night — kept from a vote by House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel — and took with it sales-tax subsidies for a soccer stadium in Orlando and remodeling plans at Daytona International Speedway and the Jacksonville Jaguars' stadium.

WINNER

State workers. They got a pay raise for the first time in six years. State, university and college employees earning less than $40,000 will get $1,400 a year; those earning more get $1,000. The public employee unions also beat back an attempt by Speaker Will Weatherford to drastically overhaul the state retirement system by closing the defined-benefit pension system to new employees and shifting them to a less-lucrative 401(k)-style plan.

LOSER

The working poor. Lawmakers failed to strike a deal on health care expansion for roughly 1 million low-income Floridians earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line ($25,980 for a family of three). The Affordable Care Act offered $51 billion over 10 years — at a cost to the state of $3.5 billion. But while Scott and the Senate wanted to take the money, House Republicans led by Weatherford refused, overriding heated objections by Democrats. As a result, an estimated 600,000 people who make too much to qualify for the state's existing Medicaid program but whose income is below the federal poverty line (about $19,000 for a family of three) will continue to be uninsured. Those earning more than that will qualify for federal subsidies to buy insurance through a federal insurance exchange — if they can afford it.

Hospitals also pushed for the expansion, which would have reduced the hundreds of millions of dollars a year in uncompensated care hospitals provide uninsured Floridians. Said Bruce Rueben, head of the Florida Hospital Association. "We will continue to fight for the Legislature to agree on a solution."

WINNER

Voters. Thousands stood in lines for as long as eight hours last November, thanks in part to a 2011 "reform" bill that cut early voting from 14 days to seven. At the urging of voter-advocacy groups — and Secretary of State Ken Detzner — lawmakers gave elections supervisors the option of holding early voting for as many as 14 days, including the last Sunday, and dramatically expanded the locations that can be used for early voting.

LOSER

The state's roughly 1,000 Internet cafes and senior arcades. In March, a federal and state probe resulted in the arrest of 57 people associated with Allied Veterans, an Internet café operator branded as a "racketeering" organization for giving only 2 percent of its profits to charity. It also prompted the resignation of Lieutenant Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who was questioned by investigators — but not charged — for her work as a consultant to the company while she was in the House. Lawmakers moved at warp speed to outlaw Internet cafes and any other facility that used computerized slot machine-type technology. South Florida senior arcades got caught in that net and are now suing to try to overturn the law.

WINNER

The insurance industry. Florida insurers beat back a Senate attempt to nix a 1987 tax break meant to encourage insurers to open offices in Florida and that has saved the industry more than $3 billion since then. It saves Jacksonville-based Blue Cross Blue Shield $32.5 million a year and State Farm more than $25 million annually.

LOSER

Florida drivers. Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, wanted to use the money from the repealed tax break to roll back vehicle-registration fees that were increased in 2010. Drivers would have saved $12 a year.